my first visit to the Art Institute of Chicago(07/17/2008)

I decided to kick start my "Things to do in Chicago" by visiting the Art institute of Chicago Museum ( free Thursday & Friday from 5PM-9PM). Even though i wanted to reach there by 5PM and avail of the full 4 hrs of free viewing time, i could not do so because of COMCAST :x. It took me a month to get a technician to fix my modem, after scheduling and re-scheduling for more than 6-7 times because of varied reasons from the guy having "family problem" to him "calling me and me not picking up"(which was utter BS). and for the "icing of the cake" i have to listen through 5 mins of their automated voice service to speak to an actual person before she expresses her sorrow for my inconvienience and reroutes me to another person or puts me on hold. i have to go through this each time i tried to contact them for anything (which probabaly was atleast 25 times last month)and the secret i learned from this experience is that i have to call their toll free number and press the number sequence "1112211"(for internet) & "1111211" (for cable) each after 15 seconds of waiting :D.On this lucky day the technician calls and informs me that he is outside my door, eventhough his dispatch officer told me that they will call me 1/2hr before of his actual arival and believing this to be true i went for a much needed hair cut in a near by Hair Cuttery. So when i get the call , i ask my lovely hair dresser to excuse me for 15mins and i ran through to my house with half my hair cut and other half pointing skywards to meet this highly trained and elusive technician ignoring all kinds of peoples stares.It took me 1 hr 15 mins (he just had to replace the modem because he didn't like the company i had ) before i could go back to get my hair cut finished (the girl over Hair Cuttery thought i was not going to come back, ...DUMB ...wat other choice did i have....).

Anyway coming back to my original theme, i finally reached the Art Institute at 7PM with just 2 hrs of viewing time left, which in retrospect is not that bad as looking and trying to absorb these artifacts/paintings is quite an exhaustive thing. So i grabbed hold of a floor map and ran up the grand staircase towards the second floor having the European paintings on exhibit. To my dismay at the top of the stairs i was greeted with a big sign "WHERE DID VAN GOGH GO" which stated that "As part of a historic, one-time-only loan, many works from the "Impressionist and Post-Impressionist" collection are currently off view while their galleries receive much-needed renovations" which was my primary goal for coming to the museum. My previous big city museums of the western world being "the MET" in NYC and "the Louvre" in PARIS (sadly neither of which i could finish) the Chicago Art Institute looked tiny but i must say they do boast of a very good collection and the paintings left in display were quite impressive.

Georges Seurat,French, 1859-1891 : "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", 1884
A.K.A the Biggest Masterpiece of Art Institute of Chicago

Antonio Mancini,Italian, 1852–1930: "Resting", 1887

"Resting -while lost in the thoughts the morning after a romantic rendezvous " would have been more apt. The artist has captured the expression and the physical position to the exact specification for that moment....amazing!!

Charles Henri Joseph Cordier,French, 1827-1905,Cast by: Eck et Durand Fondeur,French, 19th century: "Bust of an African Woman", c.1851

The sorrow and position of helplessness captured by the sculpture which is as true as it was 150 years ago is really saddening.

I completely forgot the title of the sculpture and the paintings( the details in them are minute yet immaculate) behind it, will retrieve those details next time around :D

Antoine Louis Barye,French, 1795-1875: "Roger and Angelica Mounted on the Hippogriff", model c. 1840, cast c. 1884

From Wikipedia (the source of 80% of my information..hehehe) i found a poem by Arnold Sundgaards "The Hippogriff " which describes this mystical creature very rarely seen in the medevial art forms.

When Mare and Griffin meet and mate
Their offspring share a curious fate.
One half is Horse with hooves and tail,
The rest is Eagle, claws and nail.
As a Horse it likes to graze
In summer meadows doused in haze,
Yet as an Eagle it can fly
Above the clouds where dreams drift by.
With such a Beast I am enthralled,
The Hippogriff this beast is called.

I also found out that this creature was used in one of the Harry Potter movies as well. I can produly procalim that i probabaly am the only person who hasn't seen a single one of thoose Harry Potter or The Lord of the Ring craps ,yipppeeee!!!

François Rude,French, 1784-1855: " Hebe and the Eagle of Jupiter", model c. 1852, cast c. 1860/80

Hebe is the goddess of youth in Greek mythology,the daughter of Jupiter and his wife Juno and served as the cup bearer of the gods in Olypmus before she was defeated by Ganymede who was a son of Tros, first king of Troy , also called the constellation aquarius (water bearer) which coincedently ;) happens to be my zodiac sign.. hehehe!!

Antonio Canova,Italian, 1757-1822 : "Bust of Paris", 1809

Antonio Canova,Italian, 1757-1822 : "Head of Medusa", 1801

Lambert Sigisbert Adam,French, 1700-1759: "Bust of Amphitrite", c.1725


Cristoforo Stati,Italian, c. 1556-1619: "Samson and the Lion", 1604/07

Behind is the Grand Staircase in the Allerton Building under the skylight , with the natural light from Chicago dusk filling the room with a cooling bluish haze.

Colorful Kashmir Paper Mache boxes being sold in the gift shop

Handmade stained glass table lamps for sale in the gift shop


Adams and Wabash "L" stop as seen from the stairs of the Michigan entrance of Art Institute of Chicago

Michigan entrance of Art Institute of Chicago,with one of the famous lion statues

While walking towards my 151 bus stop i stopped over at the Crown Fountain at the Millennium Park"the Face" which was filled with kids and adults playing in the water in one of the hottest Chicago nights. Its actually an amazing piece of architecture having many small screens in the shape of bricks which actually plays a video of a random person in smiles and changes expression every few seconds. The face changes, spurts out water from a strategically positioned spout near the face's mouth and a vertical drop water fountain from the top on a regular basis.

The Crown Fountain with the city in the backdrop

Kids enjoying the forceful vertical water drop from the top of the face

the reflection of one of the face in the water puddle accumulated in the space between the two fountains

A smiling face with kids underneath

the smiling face spurting out water

I know it will probably take me at least 4-5 more visits to finish of the museum to my satisfaction, of course i will have to wait for the really good collection of Renoir,Monet, Van Gogh etc they boast off to come back and definitely will have pictures of more paintings to post. Unfortunately none of the attendant could tell me when the renovations will be completed. Plus there is the new modern wing built with glass and steel having a skylight throughout to look forward to, which is scheduled to open in 2009. So i will be off to the museum tomorrow and this time will avail of the full 4hrs of free time for sure :D.

Copyrights @ 2008 Rahuljit Pal.
For More Pictures please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahuljitpal